Heretofore, numerous types of electric pulse generators, tachometers and the like have been known and utilized for various purposes. In the sensing and control of skidding activity of vehicles during braking, several types of wheel speed transducers have been incorporated in anti skid braking systems. Particularly, the aircraft industry has been known to associate a wheel speed transducer with each of the wheels or sets of wheels of an aircraft for monitoring the rotational speed of such wheels upon landing and during braking. Of necessity, the transducers associated with the wheels of the aircraft must be compact and as simplistic as possible for purposes of packaging and cost effectiveness. More importantly, the transducers must be efficient in operation and produce output signals which are highly resolvable with respect to wheel speed variations.
Consequently, it is an object of the instant invention to present a simplified wheel speed transducer which is more compact than those presently utilized in the art.
It is a further object of the invention to present a simplified wheel speed transducer which, while being of a compact nature, is highly efficient in operation and capable of producing output signals comparable to those created by presently existing transducers.
Yet another object of this invention is to present a simplified wheel speed transducer which is simplistic in design, inexpensive to construct, reliable in operation, and adaptable for implementation with presently existing systems.
These objects and other objects which will become apparent as the detailed description proceeds are achieved by a wheel speed transducer for sensing the rotational speed of a wheel about an axle, comprising: a housing adaptable for being fixedly secured to the axle; two permanent magnets received within the housing; at least one elongated pole piece commonly abutting a first surface of each of said magnets, said surfaces being of like polarity; two inductive coils having fluxconductive cores axially passing therethrough, each magnet being abutted by a core on a second surface thereof, the second surface of said magnets being of like polarity with respect to each other and of opposite polarity with respect to the first surfaces; and two pole pieces, one connected to the end of each of the cores opposite the ends of the cores abutting the magnets.